An Eldritch Proposal

[The Revanchist]

Author: The Revanchist

In a short sentence, the concept is this:
A new race\class that uses various "growths" in combat, instead of conventional weapons or armors.

Thanks to your feedback, I've decided to rework some things. At present, Spellblaze Resonance, or somesuch will be their resource. I would presume that it refills naturally, but certain talents and the spread of your influence increases the regeneration greatly.

Please note, as well, I am not fully versed in ToME lore (though I intend to be soon) and therefore I may have (serious) discrepancies between the official canon, and anything I happen to blurt out. Corrections are welcome, and continue to be welcome.

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Before getting into all the talents and other... things, it's only natural to start with character creation.

The race category, of course, is Eldritch, and the specific sub-race described here is the Spellblaze Abomination. I plan to change this soon, particularly with the advent of more choices.

Locked Description: "Power wrought through unsafe gains, brings about specific pains."
Your description ideas are welcome.

I have a few thoughts for unlocking it, unfortunately, I haven't been through the entire story yet (something about always dying) but currently, killing the Wierdling Beast or another Horror boss, or barring that, a potential item, seems the most likely. Again, suggestions are welcome.

Unlocked Description: Needs changing. Suggestions welcome. I apologize if the previous descriptor sounded pompous. That wasn't the intent.

To make the lack of equipment less harsh, I'm contemplating letting them have additional points to spend, otherwise I doubt they'd survive long. I'll be adding the categories I've drafted later, and using your feedback to improve the idea. Taintmarks will likely be a required addon.

Values for the data are... not yet exact. In other words; open to debate.

Racial

• Eldritch
  • Forsaken
    • Unforgettable
      Passive
      All Eyal stands against you, yet you will rise to the challenge. Raises your resistance to all damage types. Upon learning, however, you cannot use infusions, runes or armors.
    Eldritch Form
    • Open at level 5
      Passive
      Your true form is incomprehensible to natural creatures, and the very sight of your true form would scar them. You, however, possess the ability to hide your appearance outside combat, allowing you to interact with the mortals. While in combat, you deal more damage to enemies.
    Eldritch Mind
    • Open at level 5
      Sustained
      Your fell mind manifests as an aura of power around you, warping everything into something... wrong. Lowers all resistances in a radius around you.
      At Talent Level 3, the change damages other creatures.
    Eldritch Power
    • Open at level 10
      Every part of you is foreign, not a part of Eyal, and you embrace this... You let it fuel you. Significantly increases regeneration of your resource.
      Each level also increases your stats.

Generic Categories

• Eldritch
  • Awareness
    • Luminescence
      • Open at Level 0
        Sustained
        Your body gives off a macabre glow, letting you see in a radius around you. Stealth while illuminating is impossible, however.
        At Talent Level 3, you gain an activated talent, blinding creatures in your light radius.
    • Watching Eyes
      • Open at Level 4
        Sustained
        You aren't bound by the mortals limited physiology, and can grow numerous sensory organs at will. Raises your stealth and invisibility detection, but lowers your defense while active.
    • Reverberation
      • Open at Level 8
        Sustained
        While active, you can sense the presence of creatures in a radius around you, but cannot move.
    • Heighten Awareness
      • Open at Level 12
        Activated
        Through intense concentration, you can temporarily refine your senses, raising the radii of the previous abilities.
        At talent level 5 of Luminescence, you damage creatures with your light.
        At talent level 5 of Watching Eyes, you reflect light off your eyes, illuminating every square in your line of sight.
        At talent level 5 of Reveberations, your detection works across the entire level.

• Eldritch
  • Eldritch Power
    • Spellblaze Resonance
      • Open at Level 0
        Passive
        Creatures that are in your presence unwittingly contribute to your Spellblaze Resonance, fueling you.
    • Abomination
      • Open at Level 4
        Passive
        You are a master of your domain, macabre though it is.
        You can support an extra Growth.
        The number of growths supported increases with Talent Level.
    • Entropy
      • Open at Level 8
        Activated
        Energize the ambient Spellblaze energies, increasing your Spellblaze Resonance substantially.
    • Stillness
      • Open at Level 12
        Activated
        The aftermath of the Spellblaze still permeats life. You normally hone in and intensify this residual energy, but you also have the capacity to negate this energy.
        All creatures in the radius suffer a "Spellblaze Shock", and all talents are put on a cooldown. This includes passive talents, runes and infusions. If the creature is a summon, it is banished.
        At Talent Level 5, you can remain unaffected by this ability.

Class Talents

• Eldritch
  • Melee Growths
    • Pseudopod
      • Open at Level 0
        Sustained+Activated
        Allows you to grow a bashing appendage, and also gives you an attack that deals damage based on your physical power.
        Number of growths increase with talent level.
    • Refinement
      • Open at Level 4
        Passive
        Melee growths deal more damage per hit, and attack slightly faster.
    • Unnatural
      • Open at Level 8
        Passive
        Your own physiology reacts violently towards the mortals. Increases damage dealt, and adds a damage over time effect equal to the damage dealt by the initial attack.
    • Compound Interest
      • Open at Level 12
        Activated
        All your pseudopods attack a single target simultaneously, overwhelming them, knocking them off balance, and dealing extra damage.
  • Ranged Growths
    • Launcher
      • Open at Level 0
        Sustained+Activated
        Grow an appendage that lobs chunks of yourself at a distance.
        Firing/reload speed increases with talent level.
    • Density
      • Open at level 4
        Sustained
        Use denser material for your ammunition, dealing significantly more damage, and giving a chance to penetrate multiple targets.
    • Volatile
      • Open at level 8
        Activated
        You start a reaction in the ammunition before firing it, causing it to explode violently shortly after. Deals immense damage in a large radius.
    • Blitz
      • Open at Level 12
        Activated
        Fire all remaining ammunition at random targets in range.
  • Defensive Growths
    • Barrier
      • Open at Level 0
        Sustained+Activated
        Allows you to grow a "shield", to block incoming damage based on your resistances.
    • Conversion
      • Open at Level 4
        Activated
        Any damage blocked by your growth heals you based on your resistances.
    • Envelopment
      • Open at Level 8
        Activated
        Your barrier goes on cooldown, and grabs the target, pinning it, and dealing suffocation damage.
    • Microbarriers
      • Open at Level 12
        Sustained
        Grow innumerable invisible barriers, that catch incoming blows.
  • Resonant Growths
    • Channel
      • Open at Level 0
        Sustained+Activated
        Create a growth that can channel and direct the residual energies of the Spellblaze, albeit minimally.
    • Echo
      • Open at Level 4
        Activated
        Amplify the residual Spellblaze energies, dealing significant damage to everything in the area, including you.
    • Resonate
      • Open at Level 8
        Passive
        Damage dealt to creatures fuels your Spellblaze Resonance.
    • Destabilize
      • Open at Level 12
        Activated
        Deplete your entire Spellblaze Resonance, and detract from health if necessary, to Destabilize the target area. Any creatures caught in it are depleted viciously of their own resources. The more depleted, the greater the damage to their health. Spellblaze Resonance is not affected.
  • Independent Growths
    • Spawn
      • Open at Level 0
        Sustained
        Grow and detach a Growth, who will fight alongside you.
        This creature is made of your own flesh, and therefore reduces your own life while activated.
        Each Spawn can use one Growth of its own, from your available Growths.
    • Hive
      • Open at Level 4
        Passive
        You and your Spawn are connected. All beneficial and detrimental effects affect every member of the hive.
        Detrimental effects are negated with higher talent level.
    • Progeny
      • Open at Level 8
        Passive
        Your Spawn learn to mimic your actions, your abilities. Each Spawn can sustain a second Growth.
        At Talent Level 3, they may support another Growth, and another again on Talent Level 5.
    • Propagation
      • Open at Level 12
        Activated
        Unrestrict your inner energy, generating Spawns at no cost.
        The number of Spawns created increase with Talent Level.
        The Spawns rejoin you at the end of the effect, healing you for their current life.

EDIT: Modified some things. Thank you all for the feedback, I appreciate it.
EDIT2: Added the first iteration of the Racial Tree.
EDIT3: Added several generic trees. Are three generic talent trees enough?
EDIT4: Added several class-talent trees. Also rewrote some lore. There isn't a way to hide sections of text by any chance, is there?

[loimprevisto]

Sounds interesting, looking forward to seeing it!

Depending on how difficult you want it to be to unlock, other potential unlocks could be killing the horned horror in alt maze, killing the corrupted sandwyrm backup guardian/drinking the bile, doing a certain number of farportals, being killed by a horror, or killing that randomly encountered horror boss that has all the tentacles (with mechanics similar to the The Mouth)

[PureQuestion]

You could always allow certain equipment slots... hats and cloaks can fit a variety of forms.

[parcel]

In terms of lore, I'd say that there are several problems. Eldritch powers may be a multifaceted thing related to the multifaceted kingdom of horrors. Saying that your class is the evil god of chaos waking up may sound cool because it suggests a lot of power, but I think you should tone down the drama a little because it's too easy to declare a power level of 9000 while for gameplay purposes, actual experience with your character suggests anything but omnipotence.

ME is a plural universe, especially since the spellblaze disrupted so many barriers that kept the local world relatively insulated. There are time travelers, psychic mystics, beings from another dimension, an emergent Gaian intelligence, as well as those afflicted by unknown forces, mere husks who are somehow more powerful than they were before, but need hate to motivate them. It's a mistake to say that your class is now the one ring to rule them all, the power behind everything.

Something aligned closely with the observed horrors of ME would be good though. Just don't power them on vim because it seems 'dark' just like hate. I'd say that Vim is a force from the fearscape trying to corrupt this world, not a fundamental aspect of the distant past when the flora and fauna of the world were horrors and gods. To take a tab from the stonewarden, perhaps part of the character of horrors is the way in which they are naturally unnatural. In the most recent eons, a certain kind of natural order governs the world and arcane powers stand in opposition to it, but the primordial condition from whence the first horrible creatures were born was one in which the raw energies of the world were naturally available to the processes of life. There were hardly any constraints at all, back then. Thus there are so many many horrible creatures lingering on the periphery of the cosmos. Some of them are fairly similar to the people of contemporary ME, but that is because the only thing that makes horrors horrors to the people of ME is that they are abnormal, not usually observed. The current life process that is normal on ME is merely an outgrowth of the primordial, the continuation of a small subset of the great variety of life processes that were present in ancient times.

[Planetus]

If you want to model this after the weirdling beast (it kind of sounds like that and I'd LOVE to see that as a playable SOMETHING), I'd rewrite it so that the source is the spellblaze and/or ancient Sher'Tul artifacts. Your resources could be something like Spellblaze Echo (the aftereffects of it) or maybe Sher'Tul Power. Maybe as a mechanic, any items you hold/equip that are powered by 'unknown power' increase the recovery rate of it. I'd avoid other resources as automatic, but maybe give them trees that use various resources that they can invest in (and thus gain those resource bars), kind of like a mini-adventurer.

[Doctornull]

<horn owner=self action=toot>
The Creep from the Nullpack is modeled on horrors, and specifically has some abilities which replicate -- albeit in a more balanced way -- some stuff the Weirdling Beast can do.
</horn>

[The Revanchist]

<horn owner=self action=toot>
The Creep from the Nullpack is modeled on horrors, and specifically has some abilities which replicate -- albeit in a more balanced way -- some stuff the Weirdling Beast can do.
</horn>

I don't mind the tooting of one's horn, especially when it's the Nullpack being tooted.

That aside, is there too much similarity between the two? Yours was here first...

[Doctornull]

I don't mind the tooting of one's horn, especially when it's the Nullpack being tooted.

That aside, is there too much similarity between the two? Yours was here first...

Competition is good for everyone!

My addon probably isn't perfect, but it might be a starting point, and if people talk about what's wrong with it then maybe either I'll make it better or someone else will have a great idea for their new addon.

[loimprevisto]

If you're interested, the Eldrich project could tie in well with some of the ideas in the mutation thread...

[The Revanchist]

That would be intriguing, to say the least.

Perhaps it would be better suited to a separate sub-race? I had hoped for multiple, and random mutations seem like a great idea for one. Plus, who better for unnatural behaviours that the Eldritch?

(updated the first post, for those interested)

[loimprevisto]

I guess the biggest question I have is how will growths work?

Will they be items that you make/find and wear in an equipment slot? Sustains granted by class skills? Something else entirely?

Another possibile tie-in comes to mind too, taints! They seem a perfect complement to a class that can't use runes or infusions...

[The Revanchist]

I guess the biggest question I have is how will growths work?

Will they be items that you make/find and wear in an equipment slot? Sustains granted by class skills? Something else entirely?

Another possibile tie-in comes to mind too, taints! They seem a perfect complement to a class that can't use runes or infusions...

Can't believe I forgot to tell that. Silly me.

The Eldritch, which I am debating reclassifying as "Spellblaze Abomination", will have various class-talent trees for it's Growths. In general, they'd then be Sustains from skills.

As for the taint-marks... I haven't put much thought into it, but it seems like it would compliment nicely. They're for "corrupt forces", and the Spellblaze seems like just that. Something created by the same... would be similarly aligned. Great idea.

[Sradac]

Looks interesting, but is anyone going to actually make this or is it going to end up like the Elemental races from the Ideas forum that is mostly just fluff without anyone building anything?

[The Revanchist]

Looks interesting, but is anyone going to actually make this or is it going to end up like the Elemental races from the Ideas forum that is mostly just fluff without anyone building anything?

That's probably the biggest question, eh? "Will it get made?"

I can safely say that, if I manage to find a way to create addons (which I am in the process of doing) it will get done. Otherwise, it won't. But I don't want that to happen.

I can also say, unfortunately, that I have had no luck on that front, despite helpful contributions by the ToME community already.

[Sradac]

Hey we're in the same boat, I suck at LUA too! Throw me something to do in Java or sure, but I have 0 base knowledge of LUA which is really sad, but its relatively easy to pickup because sooooo much is already pre-built.

Take an existing addon, a simple one that dosent do a whole lot (Like, dont use Arcanum or I500 as your base ) but pick something like the Barbarian (Its what I used) or maybe Faerie. Something that only adds a very narrow width of content (ONE class, or ONE race, or ONE item set) and look at whats there.

I strongly recommend barbarian, while its outdated in terms of ToME version, the structure is still the same. Its good because it dosent add a lot of "custom" talents but re-purposes and re-names existing ones.

Alternatively, you can look at my (failed) attemtps at addons the Gnome race and the Predator class that I never finished because as stated previously, I suck at LUA again nothing custom was scripted or written for those 2, i just met the base requirements to make the thing actually load, then re-named and tweaked existing talents to work for them. Predator is probably more "finished" except for the fact that Archery breaks stealth and I didnt have the skill to make it otherwise